lock screen

Currently available for Android 4.1+ in U.S., Canada and Europe
Cover, a lock screen replacement that launched in private beta to much interest back in October, has available today in the Play Store. The app, which is currently available for free, hopes to offer a more feature-rich lock screen on your device that adapts to your habits and uses to offer you information and apps you want to see...

Think lock screen that learns which apps you use in various locations — home, work, car and out — and floats them to the lock screen as you go about your day, much like Aviate does with your home screens. Pretty slick idea, and it actually does go beyond the lock screen and the full usage of the phone.
It's invite-only for now, so sit back and let the hype flow freely around you. Can't wait to...

As with many features of the Galaxy S4, there's more than one way to get a camera shortcut on the lock screen
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is brimming with features, but right out of the box you could be forgiven for thinking there's no way of unlocking the phone straight into the camera app. Like many of the S4's advanced features, this is optional, and disabled by default. Enabling it is easy...

The past few weeks have seen some prominent lock screen security issues come to light on certain Android 4.1-based Samsung phones, including the Galaxy Note 2. Most recently, blogger Terence Eden was able to completely bypass the Note 2's lock screen security by cleverly utilizing a vulnerability in the way Samsung's TouchWiz software exits out of certain emergency dialer menus.
This morning...

Another Samsung lock screen security issue has come to light today, potentially allowing someone with physical access to a Jelly Bean-based Samsung phone to bypass a pattern or PIN lock. Brought to light by blogger Terrence Eden -- who you may remember from his earlier Note 2 exploits -- this one's particularly impressive because of the clever array of tricks used to achieve the eventual unlock...

If you've got an Android phone or tablet that's got Android 4.2.x and you're not using DashClock Widget, you are, quite frankly, doing it wrong. And the app that turns the Jelly Bean lock screen widgets into more than just wishful thinking -- by the way, it's already in the 50,000 to 100,000 download range, and we'd be willing to bet it's on the high end of that -- got an update to version 1.2...

Seems like it was only a couple days ago that we were tipped to home screen and Android 4.2 lock screen widgets for Google Now, and today that update has come, along with a few other trinkets.
First off is that widget. It works on a home screen or lock screen (the latter only if you've got Android 4.2). We not noticing any real customizable settings just yet -- sing out if you see any. But you...

I've made no secret about my outright displeasure for the new lock screen widgets in Android 4.2. Clunky, for one, often lacking style for another.
DashClock Widget is quickly changing my mind. It's the work of Roman Nurik, a Googler and Android design guy and was released this morning to Google Play and as open-source code.
The widget itself is devilishly simple. Add it to the Android 4.2 lock...

If you're running CyanogenMod nightlies on your Android device, you'll notice a little something new in this evening's builds. Aptly named Chronus, it's a widget that's a conglomeration of the clock, weather. and calendar, and it's fully customizable. The idea of more information in one widget isn't anything new, but this one looks like it is very well done. Hopefully the clock typography is one...

It's impossible for me to show my phone without someone asking "What is that calendar widget?" It's called "Pure Calendar widget (agenda)," and it just got updated so that it works as a lock screen widget with Android 4.2 Jelly Bean.
If you're unfamiliar with Pure Calendar, it's a highly customizable widget. Anything being pulled into your Google Calendar can be displayed here, and there are...

Lock screen widgets work, and they work well – but there also are some troubling security concerns
Finally, we get our first real look at the new lockscreen widgets in Android 4.2. This is a feature that was teased at the outset, but our prerelease units have now been updated with them, and it's time to put them through their paces.
Actually, this update does more than just add the ability to...

Phone dialer disappears from lock screen after updateIt's a phrase we've heard all too often: "Looking at it, something just ain't right." What you see here is the lockscreen on the Sprint HTC EVO 3D after we applied that pre-launch update that fixed a bug in the calendar. As Ozzie1p points out in the Android Central Forums, it looks like it unfixed something in the phone dialer, as the shortcut...

Because the Android Lock Screen is just so fun and cool (and it is fun and cool), some iPhone developers have ported a similar lock screen system onto the iPhone. Yep, that ol' enter a number code just wasn't cutting it for them anymore, they wanted to draw patterns like us =). As with most supremely cool things about the iPhone, the Android Lock Screen is only available for jailbroken iPhones...

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